Abstract
Traditional Chinese jurisprudence is not only found in legislative documents, but also in judicial decisions. During the Southern Song Dynasty, judicial officials not only applied legal provisions/texts to judge whether a specific act was illegal, but also emphasized reasoning to make up for the deficiencies of laws and regulations. The jurisprudence, tianli (天理), and qingli (情理) are all important factors affecting judicial judgment, but their roles are different in judicial judgment. Jurisprudence is prevalent in the administration of justice, mainly in the form of legal principles which are very close to modern legal principles but had a profound substance. In judicial practice, jurisprudence activates existing legal norms and make judgments more reasonable. It can make up for loopholes in legal norms and resolve conflicts between legal norms, thereby restoring justice and prompting judicial judges to make fair and just judicial decisions. The core values of jurisprudence in the Southern Song Dynasty were equality existing within a hierarchy, justice as supporting the weak and restraining the powerful, and the rule of law for the people, and this is precisely what gives traditional Chinese jurisprudence its unique spirit.
Keywords
Jurisprudence, fayi (法意), legal application, bifu (比附), Southern Song
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